Elementary school students’ perceptions of democratic practices in the project-based science classroom

Abstract

Researchers pointed at project-based science education encourages students’ dialogic practices such as wondering about the scientific phenomenon and asking questions, which may positively affect positively students’ democratic practices in the classroom. It is the goal of the present research to verify this issue. Sixty-six Grade 5 students participated in the research. Thirty-two students constituted the project-based science class and were engaged with project-based activities, while 34 students constituted the regular science class. The students in each class were requested to complete a questionnaire that assessed democratic practices (freedom, equality, engagement and justice). The data were analysed using SPSS 21.0. The research results indicate that project-based learning affected positively and significantly the democratic practices of equality, engagement and justice but not that of freedom. In addition, the interactions between project-based programme and gender or science-ability affected only engagement. The project-based class can empower elementary school teachers with. Specifically, the teacher needs to be aware of the constraints of freedom, so that she/he tries to encourage the freedom of the student for expression and decision taking, which are of special importance for carrying out of project-based activities.